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2020 Legal Services
How regulators should prepare for the future
November 2014
Consumer challenge
2020 Legal Services 2
About Consumer Challenge
Our Consumer Challenge series is designed to create a space for fresh thinking where the
Legal Services Consumer Panel can stimulate debate, question the received wisdom and
propose new solutions to old policy issues. These documents do not necessarily represent
the Panel‟s final policy position, but instead allow us to test ideas and spark discussion.
Other publications in the series:
Legal Education and Training Review
Third party complaints
Empowering consumers – Phase One report to the Legal Services Board
Risk and responsibility
Breaking the maze: Simplifying legal services regulation
The consumer interest
Remapping consumer redress
Recognising and responding to consumer vulnerability
2020 Legal Services 3
Contents
1 Summary ...................................................................................... 4
2 Introduction ................................................................................. 12
3 Self-lawyering ............................................................................. 14
4 Influence of technology .............................................................. 24
5 Consumer behaviour .................................................................. 36
6 Market changes .......................................................................... 49
7 What should guide the regulatory response ............................... 60
Annex 1 – Attendees at stakeholder event .................................... 64
2020 Legal Services 4
1 Summary
1.1.
To inform the development of its next three-year strategy, on which it is due to
consult shortly, the Legal Services Board asked the Panel to examine what
developments in the period to 2020 are most likely to have an impact on the
consumers of legal services and what should guide how the LSB and approved
regulators respond to them.
1.2.
Accurately forecasting change in legal services is especially difficult given the sheer
range of factors in play and observers suggest the market will be unrecognisable
from how it looks today. Yet, for all its uncertainty, the seeds of the future are likely
to be found in the trends, innovations and policy changes happening right now. The
Panel went about its task by examining the domestic and international literature on
future developments in legal services and wider consumer affairs, referring to our
unique Tracker Survey and previous work, and by talking to experts in the field.
1.3.
Our report explores four broad interrelated areas that we consider will have the
most profound impacts on consumers: self-lawyering; the influence of technology;
changes in consumer behaviour; and market changes. To address the second
element of the commission, we have identified five overarching themes to guide the
regulatory response.
Key developments
Development 1: Self-lawyering
1.4.
The core challenge ahead is to extend access to justice to those currently excluded
from the market because they cannot afford legal services. This need and other
forces, including government policy, consumer empowerment, technology and the
effects of liberalisation, will combine to result in less involvement by lawyers in
2020 Legal Services 5
many of the tasks that until now have made up their staple diet. Consumers will
seek alternatives to lawyers or use them in different ways. In place of lawyers will
be greater self-lawyering, online services, entry by unregulated businesses, and
also by regulated providers, such as accountants and banks, who will diversify into
the law. Calls will grow for more radical solutions that cut lawyers out, such as an
inquisitorial style of justice and online dispute resolution, which are better suited to
the new funding realities. The consumer interest will lie in resolving the tension
between cost and quality, and determining when a lawyer is needed and when
alternatives can safely suffice. Regulated lawyers should be viewed as a small part
of an increasingly diverse ecosystem of legal services delivery; improving access
will require looking at how the whole system will work in future around consumer
need.
1.5.
The LSB‟s next three-year strategy could help create a better market for consumers
in 2020 by:
Pushing for simplification of legal processes, where appropriate, to enable
some consumers to complete common legal tasks without the need to
engage a lawyer, or with minimal supervision by a lawyer
Ensuring that regulation supports innovative developments like unbundling
and is capable of managing the different risks which this practice creates
Contributing thought leadership on the regulatory implications of
developments such as the rise in litigants in person and online dispute
resolution
Maximising the evidence base by which performance of all types of legal
services can be monitored and judged by regulators and consumers
Development 2: Influence of technology
1.6.
Technology will go to the heart of all aspects of legal services in the future,
changing how legal problems are identified, people and businesses resolve their
disagreements, the way consumers choose providers, how legal services are
2020 Legal Services 6
delivered and law firms run their businesses. Technology has the potential to
greatly enhance access to justice, but it shouldn‟t be viewed as a panacea - those
currently excluded from legal services are the least likely to be online, and it can‟t
substitute for the human touch in every situation. Technology also promises to both
transform how people consume legal services and create new markets. This
innovation should mostly be beneficial, but will bring with it new „digital detriments‟
for regulators to contend with. The market should be neither more nor less risky,
but policymakers will need to reorient regulation and update skill sets to recognise
and manage new risks that replace old ones.
1.7.
The LSB‟s next three-year strategy could help create a better market for consumers
in 2020 by:
Informing policy on the opportunities and limitations of digital delivery as a
solution to the access to justice challenge given the need to reconcile the
affordability benefits with the reality that some of the key groups who are
currently excluded from the justice system are not online
Ensuring the approved regulators are alive to emerging digital detriments and
develop the skills to police the digital marketplace effectively and support
consumers to use it safely
Assisting with efforts to unlock the potential of Big Data while exploring the
ethical and information governance issues it creates
Engaging with national digital markets/exclusion initiatives. As part of planned
ongoing thinking on modernisation of the wider regulatory framework,
ensuring reform options deal effectively with global digital markets that exist
largely outside the boundaries of the Legal Services Act
Development 3: Consumer behaviour
1.8.
Across the economy, bolstered by strengthened consumer rights, transparency on
provider performance and greater access to redress, and aided by more
sophisticated intermediaries which help people find better deals, the traditional
2020 Legal Services 7
consumer-business relationship will be turned on its head. However, the extent to
which these broader developments will impact on legal services is unclear. Our
data shows consumers are becoming slightly more empowered and the sector will
not be immune to broader societal changes. Yet, inherent features of the market
militate against empowering consumers, so regulators should be realistic about the
scope for this to enable the removal of sectoral regulation. Crucially, unless wide
differences in experience between certain population groups are narrowed,
vulnerable consumers could remain worse off. Narrowing inequalities must be a
priority. Should the right performance data that could unleash consumer power be
unlocked, new third party intermediary services could emerge to guide and manage
choice. Although while these providers should empower consumers they may
create new problems too. Regulators have an interest in maximising the potential of
these services by removing barriers to their development while encouraging
appropriate safeguards to protect consumers.
1.9.
The LSB‟s next three-year strategy could help create a better market for consumers
in 2020 by:
Designing policy so that vulnerable consumers share fully in the gains of the
market reforms and quantifying and monitoring evidence of exclusion
Ensuring the collection and opening up of data by regulators about the
performance of lawyers
Facilitating the emergence of a healthy intermediaries market that could help
consumers make better choices and ensuring this works in the consumer
interest
Fostering the development of information and public education to build
consumer confidence and enable consumers to use the market effectively
Development 4: Market changes
1.10. Informed
observers think the legal services market will be unrecognisable by 2020
as the pace of change accelerates following the ABS reforms. Current ABS
2020 Legal Services 8
developments – including consolidation, specialisation, emerging brands,
investment in marketing, technology and new delivery methods, hold clues to the
future. The law will increasingly become a more business-like environment. This
should deliver benefits to consumers and widen access, but it may also bring more
sophisticated marketing and commercial practices seen in other markets that have
caused consumer detriment. Regulators must acquire new skills and tools to deal
with these new risks. Unregulated businesses will continue to grow as a major
component of the market. It will be important to maintain and enhance consumer
protection, and extend access to redress, so the public have confidence to engage
in the market and can use it safely. This requires regulators to work closely with
local and national enforcement partners who act as guardians of general consumer
law. It also makes a review of the reserved activities and wider regulatory
framework ever more urgent, but in the interim there will be a need to raise
standards in unregulated markets. The loosening and stretching of regulatory
boundaries as a result of present rule changes will continue to blur differences
between branches of the legal profession. This process should benefit consumers
and the LSB has a role to remove any artificial barriers that prevent the market
responding to consumer demand. It will also need to ensure that competition
between professional groups for the same work happens on fair terms.
1.11. The
LSB‟s next three-year strategy could help create a better market for consumers
in 2020 by:
Unblocking artificial obstacles to convergence among professional groups,
while ensuring competition between those groups for the same work happens
on fair terms
Ensuring the approved regulators are equipped to respond effectively to the
new types of consumer detriment that result from law becoming a more
business-like environment
Actively encouraging and facilitating initiatives to raise standards and extend
access to redress in unregulated markets
2020 Legal Services 9
Continuing to press for modernisation of the wider regulatory framework in the
longer term. Meanwhile, where possible, move towards harmonising
arrangements, such as rulebooks, disciplinary regimes and financial
protection schemes, within the existing legislative structures
What should guide the regulatory response
Guiding point 1: Act to ensure the reforms benefit everyone
1.12. Overall,
we are optimistic about the future; it promises innovative and cheaper
services, wider access and more empowered consumers. However, there is also a
risk that vulnerable consumers will be left behind and inequalities will widen, for
example due to an overreliance on technology or people having no option but to
handle their legal matter alone. In order to create fair markets that serve all, it will
not be sufficient for regulators to sit back and let market forces unfold; instead they
should tackle consumer vulnerability strategically, quantifying and monitoring
exclusion, and embedding this throughout their work. Similarly, the balance of
power between consumers and providers of legal services will be transformed only
if regulators are proactive about empowerment, for example by unlocking access to
reliable data about the quality of service provision and encouraging intermediaries
to make it intelligible to a range of consumers, and having a clear strategy for
empowering consumers more generally, for example through public education.
Guiding point 2: Adapt to the changing pattern of risks
1.13. The
market will not become more or less risky, but the nature of the risks is likely to
be different. Developments such as a more business-like environment, unbundled
services, technology and third party intermediary services, promise to widen access
and improve service delivery, but will also create new sorts of challenges for
lawyers and give rise to new types of detriments that have caused headaches in
other markets. Regulators will also need to move with the times, by updating their
tools and regulatory criteria, acquiring new skills and forging strong partnerships
with local and national agencies responsible for enforcing general consumer law.
2020 Legal Services 10
Guiding point 3: Rethink consumer protections
1.14. Regulation
shouldn‟t be seen a last resort, but as a vital safety net which protects
the vulnerable, empowers consumers and enables growth. Consumer confidence
that the rules protect them is the single most important factor that explains those
markets that work for consumers and those that do not. Sometimes, as with
convergence in the profession, there will be a need to remove regulation which
inhibits competition. In other situations consumer protection will need to be
strengthened, with options including extending the reach of regulation, expanding
access to redress, updating regulatory criteria and tools, and exploring alternatives
to traditional regulation. Often these decisions will involve a difficult balancing act
between access to justice and consumer protection. Overall, though, rather than
thinking about having more or less regulation in net terms, the focus should be on
ensuring regulation is targeted in the right place and does the job it is designed for.
Rethinking consumer protection also means a starting point which looks at the
whole legal services ecosystem rather than the narrow boundaries of legal services
regulation.
Guiding point 4: Work in different ways
1.15. There
are opportunities for the LSB to work in different ways in order to bring about
the better future for consumers in 2020 that the organisation and its partners will
wish to strive for. Some developments, such as the steady rise in litigants in person
and online dispute resolution, create novel and difficult policy issues where high
quality thought leadership on the regulatory implications would contribute real
value. In other areas, as with big data and intermediary markets, the LSB could
play a direct role in facilitating innovation. Further, there is scope for the LSB to
encourage and facilitate efforts to raise standards and extend access to redress in
unregulated markets. Equally, our analysis should inform the development of some
existing activities. For example, its regulatory standards work, which periodically
assesses the performance of the approved regulators, needs to assess whether the
regulators have acquired the new knowledge and skill sets we describe.
2020 Legal Services 11
Guiding point 5: Maintain pressure for legislative reform
1.16. The
overall regulatory framework will come under even greater strain than it is
today and the LSB should continue to press for major legislative reform. For
example, in a burgeoning digital market place, legal services will be delivered by
businesses operating outside of the Legal Services Act boundaries enabling
emerging providers of legal services to fall through the gaps. Multi-disciplinary onestop shops will rub up against artificial sectoral silos. Regulators‟ tools will be
inadequate to deliver effective regulation. The blurred professional boundaries will
inhibit competition; limit workforce mobility; leave a titles-based regime seeming
more redundant; and make the duplication of cost and effort required to maintain
multiple rulebooks, disciplinary regimes and so on, even harder to justify. The
current legislation was designed to liberalise the market, but with a new era being
ushered in, so too the framework will need to be modernised. While legislative
reform is not feasible within the lifetime of the LSB‟s next three-year strategy, it
should be possible to set down quite precisely the change that is needed, seek to
build consensus around this vision and secure political commitment on
implementation.
2020 Legal Services 12
2 Introduction
2.1.
The Legal Services Board is developing its new three-year strategy covering the
period 2015-18. To bring a strong consumer perspective to these emerging plans, it
commissioned the Panel to answer the following question:
“What developments in the period to 2020 are most likely to have an impact
on the consumers of legal services and what should guide how the LSB and
approved regulators respond to them?”
2.2.
It is, of course, impossible to predict the future with any certainty. The Panel has no
more access to a crystal ball than anyone else. In carrying out this commission, we
have kept in mind the work of the celebrated economist, Daniel Kahneman, who
teaches that behavioural biases mean people are systematically misguided when
they think about the future. Even so, these exercises are useful in enabling us all to
help shape a better future and guard against risks we can reasonably foresee.
2.3.
Accurately forecasting change in legal services is especially difficult given the sheer
range of factors in play. We are still in the relatively early stages of the competition
reforms with the legal press carrying stories of new innovations on an almost daily
basis. There has been a tremendous amount of policy change outside the
regulatory framework of the Legal Services Act – legal aid and litigation funding
reforms, the push for mediation, changes to substantive law, courts reform and
much else besides – which are still working their way through. Added to this is an
evolving economic picture and in six months a General Election that could usher in
further policy change.
2.4.
Historically, lawyers have been a conservative profession which has successfully
resisted change. However, if anything is certain about the future, it‟s surely that
lawyers can no longer withstand the major forces that are reshaping all markets. In
the past, lawyers served local communities, disliked technology and there were
2020 Legal Services 13
boundaries between the practice of law and other things. They were protected from
competition and clients were passive recipients of their advice. Today‟s markets are
global, technology goes to the heart of all legal work and the problems lawyers are
asked to solve are multi-disciplinary and require them to interact with experts in
other fields. Competition is being fully unleashed and the consumer/business
relationship is getting turned on its head.
2.5.
What follows is not a comprehensive look at the future. The Panel had limited time
to complete this commission and we did not have a budget to commission original
research to inform our analysis. Nevertheless we are fortunate that other individuals
and organisations, both at home and abroad, have invested significant resources in
looking at the future. In addition to learning from this work, we have been able to
draw on our unique Tracker Survey and other research evidence to unpick
consumer trends. We were also able to access the views of experts through a
thought-provoking stakeholder event facilitated for us by the leading journalist and
commentator, Joshua Rozenberg.
2.6.
The legal services market will be different in 2020 than today. Yet, for all its
uncertainty, the seeds of the future are likely to be found in the trends, innovations
and policy reforms happening right now. This report explores four broad interrelated
areas that we consider will have the most profound impacts on consumers: selflawyering; the influence of technology; changes in consumer behaviour; and market
changes. To address the second element of the commission, we have identified
five overarching themes to guide the regulatory response.
2.7.
The Panel is unashamedly focused on the consumer perspective. This is what
Parliament created us for and we make no apology for this. There are, of course,
other interests that regulators must take into account when deciding their future
priorities. However, it is right that the LSB starts with the consumer since ultimately
lawyers are here to serve consumers and the wider public interest. Just as many of
the changes we describe in this report are being driven by consumers, so any
successful regulatory strategy in the future must also be shaped around consumer
needs.
2020 Legal Services 14
3 Self-lawyering
SUMMARY
The core challenge ahead is to extend access to justice to those
currently excluded from the market because they cannot afford legal
services. This need and other forces, including government policy,
consumer empowerment, technology and the effects of liberalisation,
will combine to result in less involvement by lawyers in many of the
tasks that until now have made up their staple diet. Consumers will
seek alternatives to lawyers or use them in different ways. In place of
lawyers will be greater self-lawyering, online services, entry by
unregulated businesses, and also by regulated providers, such as
accountants and banks, who will diversify into the law. Calls will grow
for more radical solutions that cut lawyers out, such as an inquisitorial
style of justice and online dispute resolution, which are better suited to
the new funding realities. The consumer interest will lie in resolving the
tension between cost and quality, and determining when a lawyer is
needed and when alternatives can safely suffice. Regulated lawyers
should be viewed as a small part of an increasingly diverse ecosystem
of legal services delivery; improving access will require looking at how
the whole system will work in future around consumer need.
2020 Legal Services 15
Enabling self-lawyering
3.1.
In 2020, when we look back over what has been achieved during the previous five
years, success should largely be judged by whether access to justice has been
extended to those who currently are excluded from the market because they cannot
afford legal services. The environment in which the LSB and its stakeholders will go
about meeting this objective is challenging. Research shows that the cost of legal
services, among other factors, has created large unmet need in households, smallsized businesses and charities. The state is pulling back from funding legal advice
through cuts to legal aid, while the free advice sector is contracting due to severe
financial pressures. At present, insurance has not developed to fill this gap and
anyway poorer consumers are perhaps the least likely to take out cover to pay for
future possible legal needs. More widely, the economy is growing again, but as yet
the gains are not being evenly distributed – there remain substantial economic and
social inequalities to tackle.
3.2.
Within this challenging context, the perception that lawyers are expensive, and a
feeling that lawyers often represent poor value for money, is leading some people
to either avoid lawyers, seek out alternatives or use lawyers as a last resort or in
different ways.
3.3.
Access to justice will be enhanced if consumers are empowered to handle more of
their legal affairs by themselves. Some legal services, such as administering an
estate, have been carried out perfectly adequately by large numbers of individuals
acting without the support of a lawyer for many years. In this vein, reforms to
modernise public services through technology are taking lawyers out of some tasks.
For example, Money Claim Online allows county court claims to be issued for fixed
sums up to £100,000 by individuals and organisations over the internet. This
2020 Legal Services 16
„Cyber-Court‟ issues more claims than any other county court.1 Further, 15,000
people registered a lasting power of attorney through the Office of the Public
Guardian‟s new digital tool in its first year. Interestingly, this is only a partially online
service as the forms must still be printed, hand-signed and posted off.2 The
Ministry of Justice recently postponed plans to introduce an all-digital system after
feedback that it gave greater scope for fraud and financial abuse, and would not be
suitable for elderly clients. The Law Society had emphasised the need to retain
face-to-face contact.3
3.4.
Professor Richard Susskind has identified a trend towards the commoditisation of
legal services.4 By this, it is often meant that legal work, which used to require
hand-crafting by legal specialists, has now, in some way, been standardised or
systematised so that the service of the traditional lawyer is scarcely needed. As a
result some, if not many, areas of legal practice can be routinised and so provided
to clients at far lower cost. In the following section we explore technological
developments, such as automated documents, which are either removing lawyers
from some legal processes altogether, or at least changing their roles. For example,
at its heart a will is a collection of legal precedents, which intelligent technology
enables providers to customise to the client‟s individual needs. Often the service
includes a stage where a lawyer checks the document, but some products make
this step optional. Automated documents are now available for a vast range of legal
situations. However, as Richard Susskind points out, not all work can be
commoditised, and the real challenge for the future is to disentangle those parts of
legal work that can be commoditised, those that require human crafting, and all
points in between.
1
www.justice.gov.uk
Office of the Public Guardian, Annual Report 2013-14
3
Law Society Gazette, Digital plan for powers of attorney shelved, 21 August 2014.
4
Richard Susskind, Tomorrow‟s Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future, Oxford University Press, 2013.
2
2020 Legal Services 17
Making a power of attorney online
It is the Government‟s ambition that every citizen makes a power of attorney
in order to prepare for the future. The Panel‟s research suggests that
currently 9% of people have done so.
The Office of the Public Guardian has built a digital tool which will make the
process of creating and registering a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)
simpler, clearer and faster. It offers:
•
Step by step guidance: it breaks the process down into small, logical
steps
•
Fewer errors: it checks for errors and prevents users from going
further until mistakes are corrected
•
Help where it‟s needed: it provides relevant guidance at the point of
need - with further help available at the click of a mouse
•
Fewer forms to complete: it automatically chooses and fills in all the
forms the user needs with the information they provide. All the user
has to do is print and sign them
•
Online secure payment: there‟s an application fee for each LPA
registered and the OPG‟s online payment partner will ensure
payments are safe and secure
•
Secure personal information: all the information users enter is
safeguarded on protected government servers
Making an LPA online costs £110.
3.5.
One of the points in between is unbundled delivery. In its simplest terms,
unbundling separates a package of legal services into parts, and the client and
lawyer agree to what parts of the package the lawyer will provide.5 Unbundling is
nothing new. Conveyancers, probate practitioners and others have for years invited
cost-conscious clients to do some of the heavy lifting administrative tasks
themselves. Our Tracker Survey suggests around one in five transactions already
involve some form of unbundling, most commonly in probate, employment and
5
Australian Productivity Commission, Draft report on access to justice arrangements, 2013.
2020 Legal Services 18
immigration work. However, there is particular policy interest in unbundling as part
of the solution to the rise in litigants in person on the grounds that „some lawyer is
better than none at all‟. As consumers feel forced by financial circumstances to take
on some of the legal work themselves, or alternatively, they grow the confidence to
become more closely involved in dealing with aspects of the work alone,
unbundling may become a popular option for consumers.
3.6.
When providing an unbundled service lawyers may be fearful of breaching their
code of conduct or being made the scapegoat if something goes wrong. There is
fierce debate in the US on the ethics of unbundling, with some denouncing the
practice as being incompatible with the duties of competence, diligence and zeal.6
In England and Wales, the Law Society has been encouraging of unbundled
services, but its practice guidance note identifies a series of risks.7 Risks for
consumers include being unable to assess which tasks they can handle alone, the
on-off nature of the service leading to oversights and a lack of clarity about the
agreement between the lawyer and client. Risks for lawyers include negligence
claims and unwittingly implying a full retainer.
3.7.
The consumer experience of unbundling is under-researched, however the initial
evidence is encouraging: our Tracker Survey suggests service satisfaction for
unbundled work is almost as high as work where a lawyer provides a full service in
the traditional way. However, if unbundling is going to take off, we need an
appropriate regulatory system which gives lawyers the confidence to unbundle their
services and consumers the information and confidence to use them effectively.
Regulators can initially contribute through thought leadership and growing the
evidence base.
6
Jessica K Steinberg, In Pursuit of Justice? Case Outcomes and the Delivery of Unbundled Legal Services,
George Washington University Law School, 2011.
7
Law Society, Practice note: Unbundling family legal services, May 2013.
2020 Legal Services 19
Resolving disputes
3.8.
A major shift in recent years has been the removal of lawyers from the process of
resolving disputes of various kinds. Often this has been the direct result of
government policy. Many years ago the small claims court was created as a forum
to resolve low value consumer disputes without the need for legal representation
(although lawyers are now often to be found in the small claims court). The
Government has recently increased the small claims limit for consumer disputes
and is under pressure from insurers to do the same for personal injury cases.
However, the biggest shift has been to take certain disputes out of the courts
altogether. This can be seen in the growth of tribunals, the push for mediation and
spread of ombudsmen and other ADR mechanisms. In respect of the latter,
ombudsmen have expanded beyond consumer disputes to cover all sorts of
situations, including farmers‟ disagreements with supermarkets and press selfregulation.
3.9.
It is extraordinary that since 2000, the annual number of small claims hearings has
halved from approximately 60,000 to 30,0008 while over the same period the
Financial Ombudsman Service‟s annual caseload has risen from 30,000 to over
500,000.9 In July 2015 the UK will be required to implement EU legislation which
will give consumers the right to access ADR for all transactions (although it will be
optional for traders to participate unless mandated otherwise). This is set to expand
the use of ADR still further, and by extension, mean less dispute resolution work for
lawyers. Alternatively it will mean lawyers are deployed in different roles - lawyers
are becoming mediators and the Financial Ombudsman is reputedly the UK‟s
largest employer of law graduates.
8
9
Court statistics quarterly reports
Financial Ombudsman Service, various annual reports
2020 Legal Services 20
3.10. The
ongoing shift from the courts to ADR will open further avenues for claims
management companies and other unregulated firms to assist consumers in
bringing complaints against businesses across a wider field of economic activity. In
some areas these businesses account for a high proportion of cases – 72% of PPI
complaints made to the Financial Ombudsman in 2013-14 were brought through
claims management companies.10 The Civil Aviation Authority has also reported
increased numbers of complaints made via claims managers. This trend may be
beneficial to the extent it could break down barriers to making complaints and help
consumers secure the outcomes they want. However, there have been concerns
that such businesses exaggerate the complexity of making a complaint and take
fees which unnecessarily eat into the compensation consumers are due. Claims
management companies do not have locus to represent consumers in court so a
further issue is that they may persuade the consumer to use an ombudsman when
it would be in their best interests to litigate (perhaps due to value of the dispute
exceeding the maximum compensation the ADR body may award).
3.11. However,
the impressive statistics on the scale of ADR are dwarfed by online
dispute resolution (ODR) providers. For example, Modria resolves 60 million
disputes a year for Amazon customers using automated processes. There are a
vast range of techniques including some which eliminate human intervention
entirely. One model growing in popularity is automated negotiation, which allows
the users to analyse their bargaining positions; this is done by evaluating and
prioritising their bids, which are kept hidden during the negotiation. Normally, there
is an algorithm that evaluates bids from the parties and settles the case if the offers
are within a prescribed range set by the users at the outset. Where this happens
the technology automatically settles the dispute in the mid-point of the two offers.
Another type of software helps divorcing couples to divide their assets by using a
10
Financial Ombudsman Service, Annual Report 2013-14.
2020 Legal Services 21
scoring system to prioritise what they value most.11 The software has been adapted
so that it can even be used to agree disputes over the custody of children.
3.12. The
Civil Justice Council has established a working group to consider
developments in ODR. This work needs to carefully consider the consumer
implications of these solutions. Certainly ODR can deal with large volumes of
disputes and reduce cost. However, there would appear risks when the parties do
not contest on an equal footing, for example traders as repeat players could game
the system compared to consumers who are inexperienced users. In certain
situations an inquisitorial approach will be still needed to get to the bottom of
disputes and ensure fair outcomes. Yhe use of ODR is likely to extend to the
processes used by existing offline dispute resolution processes as they seek to
gain efficiencies and reduce their costs. Some ombudsmen already use technology
to automatically filter out complaints which fall outside of their jurisdictions. The
extent to which these tools should be used to aid decision-making on individual
cases requires more debate.
Litigants in person – and the wider „ecosystem‟
3.13. The
processes described above are largely voluntary on the consumer‟s part,
although as in the case of mediation, government policy can create powerful
incentives to try them before granting access to the courts. The growth of litigants in
person involves a different dynamic because the withdrawal of legal aid has forced
people to represent themselves since they cannot afford the services of a lawyer.
The Civil Justice Council‟s prediction12 that litigants in person will become the rule
rather than the exception has already materialised for some case types. Around
three-quarters of all civil and family claims, including just over half of divorce cases
11
Family Winner. Watch a demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOZczuvrou4
Civil Justice Council, Access to Justice for Litigants in Person (or self-represented litigants). A Report and
Series of Recommendations to the Lord Chancellor and to the Lord Chief Justice, November 2011.
12
2020 Legal Services 22
involving financial remedies, already involve at least one litigant in person. There is
no sign of this trend reversing.
3.14. The
Civil Justice Council‟s report makes the important point that litigants in person
„are users of the civil justice system, and the system exists for its users‟. On the
basis that litigants in person will represent the majority of court users, this is leading
stakeholders to think about radical solutions. Moving to an inquisitorial system of
justice and making uncontested divorce an administrative matter that does not need
courts to get involved, are two such proposals.
3.15. The
regulatory implications of this development include the need for better
consumer information and advice, the role of opposing lawyers and entry by
unregulated businesses. The ability of new entrants, partly because they are
unregulated, to provide some legal services for a fee much lower than lawyers
charge, may be very attractive to consumers for whom cost concerns are
paramount. In some scenarios, as was the case in the Panel‟s recent report on feecharging McKenzie Friends, this support may be the only affordable option
available to consumers. Our report exposed the difficult choices facing
policymakers in terms of balancing access to justice and consumer protection.
While the natural inclination is to regulate to protect consumers, and there were
certainly a range of courtroom and commercial practices that caused us concern, in
our analysis this would have led to reduced access and other tools could be tried to
raise standards.
3.16. The
pattern of McKenzie Friends emerging to fill a gap in demand which lawyers
cannot serve may repeat itself in other sections of the market. Each decision on
whether to regulate will need to be taken on its merits. However, it is increasingly
clear to us that the regulators can no longer only consider the regulated market.
Fee-charging McKenzie Friends are one example of the likely evolution of legal
services that will call for imaginative approaches by regulators in the near future. To
make serious inroads into the access to justice challenge regulators need to look at
the how the whole system is working, and will work in the future, around the
consumer. As the graphic below illustrates, lawyers form one part of an ecosystem
2020 Legal Services 23
which is getting more and more diverse and the right regulatory response requires
a full understanding the whole.
Key steps
3.17. The
LSB‟s next three-year strategy could help create a better market for consumers
in 2020 by:
Pushing for simplification of legal processes, where appropriate, to enable
some consumers to complete common legal tasks without the need to engage
a lawyer, or with minimal supervision by a lawyer
Ensuring that regulation supports innovative developments like unbundling
and is capable of managing the different set of risks which this practice
creates
Contributing thought leadership on the regulatory implications of
developments such as the rise in litigants in person and usage of online
dispute resolution
Maximising the evidence base by which performance of all types of legal
services can be monitored and judged by regulators and consumers
2020 Legal Services 24
4 Influence of technology
SUMMARY
Technology will go to the heart of all aspects of legal services in the
future, changing how legal problems are identified, people and
businesses resolve their disagreements, the way consumers choose
providers, how legal services are delivered and law firms run their
businesses. Technology has the potential to greatly enhance access to
justice, but it shouldn’t be viewed as a panacea - those currently
excluded from legal services are the least likely to be online, and it
can’t substitute for the human touch in every situation. Technology
also promises to both transform how people consume legal services
and create new markets. This innovation should mostly be beneficial,
but will bring with it new ‘digital detriments’ for regulators to contend
with. The market should be neither more nor less risky, but
policymakers will need to reorient regulation and update skill sets to
recognise and manage new risks that replace old ones.
2020 Legal Services 25
Enhancing access to justice
4.1.
Technology analysts suggest we are at the start of a third age of computing which
will disrupt information-intensive industries like legal services. Rather than use
deterministic programming where the computer is instructed to perform a specific
task, the future is probabilistic and cognitive - systems that learn and can reason
based on information provided in natural language. Computers will be able to
digest, correlate and analyse vast amounts of information and a new set of advisory
tools will enable human and machine to work together to resolve complex
problems. Such technology is predicted to augment advice provided by humans,
not replace it.13 IBM‟s Watson - an Artificial Intelligence computer system - is
already being widely used in healthcare. By looking at a patient‟s medical records it
can say with 95% accuracy that one type of chemotherapy is better than other
options. Over 90% of nurses who use Watson in the field follow its guidance.14
4.2.
A popular maxim among proponents of public legal education, is that it is better to
build a fence at the top of the cliff rather than park an ambulance at the bottom.
Leading commentators, such as Richard Susskind, are excited by the potential for
technological advances, such as those described above, to enable prevention of
legal problems, or at least help people diagnose their problem and be signposted to
the right support. The Rechtwijzer website, funded by the Dutch Legal Aid Board,
uses relatively simple technology to good effect. It provides an online „dispute
roadmap‟ that, on the basis of a number of choices, guides users step by step
along all the legal aspects of their conflict.15 There have been calls for the UK
Government to emulate this model.
13
Mike Rhodin, Senior Vice President, IBM Watson, speaking at the Harvard Law School Conference on
Disruptive Innovation in the Market for Legal Services, March 2014.
14
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26366888
15
www.rechtwijzer.nl
2020 Legal Services 26
4.3.
As technology makes legal services simpler to use, involve less effort and cheaper
to buy, more people are likely to carry out the sorts of tasks - like writing a will or
arranging a power of attorney - which currently they either prefer to put off or
cannot afford to do. Therefore, technology is closely linked to the self-lawyering
trend described in the previous chapter. For example, major financial brands have
relatively recently started to heavily market tools which enable customers to
automatically generate draft legal documents based on their answers to a series of
questions, supported by context sensitive help and advice to guide them through
the more complex aspects. The documents appear before their eyes and enable
consumers to „try before they buy‟.
4.4.
Such automated documents are a classic example of what Clay Christensen calls
„disruptive innovations‟ since they allow a whole new population of consumers at
the bottom of a market access to a product or service that was historically only
accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill.16 Legal Zoom, a
pioneer of such services, became the most recognised legal brand in the United
States within a decade of forming. Before this technology was introduced, only 30%
of US citizens had made a will; today the figure is around 50%.17 The Panel‟s
Tracker Survey suggests that 35% of the public in England and Wales has made
their will. Thus technology has a key role in meeting the affordability challenge that
we wish the reforms be judged against.
4.5.
21 million households have internet access, UK consumers are the most prolific
online shoppers in the EU and mobile commerce is mushrooming. These conditions
suggest this country is a ripe environment for technology to radically enhance
access to legal services. However, we also have a digital divide - only 51% of those
aged over 65, 74% of C2DEs and 65% of disabled people are online. Digital literacy
is low among those not in education, employment or training (NEETs). As Smith
16
www.claytonchristensen.com
John Suh, CEO of Legal Zoom, Speaking at the Harvard Law School Conference on Disruptive Innovation
in the Market for Legal Services, March 2014.
17
2020 Legal Services 27
and Paterson conclude, for all its benefits, the delivery of legal services cannot be
wholly digital in future if in excess of 20% of the target population would be
excluded.18 The Oxford Internet Institute has identified progress on narrowing
digital divides with a rise in Internet access for lower income groups, people with no
formal educational qualifications, retired people, and individuals with disabilities, but
also says a persistent core of non-users – the large majority of whom do not intend
to get connected – will present a problem for digital by default services.19
4.6.
The digital divide, though, is not a reason to inhibit the development of digital
services, rather it provides an imperative to tailor services to need. The potential of
digital technologies to increase the availability of face-to face help for those who
need it by providing other options for those who don‟t, and in this way potentially
reducing the overall costs of service provision, will become more apparent over
time. Regulators aren‟t in the business of backing digital solutions over other
options, or vice versa. However, they are in the risk business and vulnerable
consumers can often miss out if industry thinks they are too expensive or difficult to
serve. The regulatory objectives will not be met if certain consumers are excluded
from the market because they are not online. Regulators have to tread carefully, but
do have a legitimate interest in how this issue evolves.
4.7.
Finally, legal problems are often highly personal, emotive or stressful, while
people‟s circumstances can be complex and multi-faceted. There may be a risk that
policymakers attracted by the cost benefits of technology become too zealous in
seeing it as a panacea and forget that the human touch is core to the effective
resolution of legal issues. While, of course, many people already successfully
resolve all sorts of problems without face-to-face advice, and technology can
deliver highly personalised services, there is something uncomfortable in the
thought that all legal issues can be reduced to computer code where most
18
All references in paragraph: Professor Alan Paterson and Roger Smith, Face to Face Legal Services and
their Alternatives: global lessons from the digital revolution, 2014.
19
Oxford Internet Institute, Cultures of the Internet: The Internet in Britain 2013.
2020 Legal Services 28
communication happens through an avatar. Good lawyers are counsellors and
creative problem solvers, not just experts in the law. Knowing how hard to push,
and when to pull back, will be a key challenge.
What about Watson?
Watson is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) computer system capable of
answering questions posed in natural language. It is famed for winning the
TV quiz show, Jeopardy, against past human winners. Watson learns by
reading books, articles and other information. It can make reasoned
judgements even with conflicting information. Watson is being used in
healthcare, where it has been taught to recognise different types of cancer
and treatments. By looking at a patient‟s medical records it can say with 95%
accuracy that one type of chemotherapy is better than other options. Over
90% of nurses who use Watson in the field follow its guidance.
There are dozens of versions of Watson which IBM can tailor to specific
industries. IBM has recently launched a partnership, the Watson Group, with
$100 million set aside to fund start ups that launch creative uses for Watson these uses will grow and grow.
Digital markets
4.8.
According to our survey data, around half of legal services are already delivered
remotely - online or by telephone or post. Surveys show strong consumer demand
for online services: in one, 47% of consumers polled said online delivery is
important to them.20 Law firms are responding to this demand: the same survey
found that 23% of law firms currently offer 24/7 interactive online legal services and
a further 26% plan to within a year. Technologies such as online case tracking,
familiar in conveyancing, are designed to improve the customer experience and cut
20
http://www.pepperminttechnology.co.uk/peppermint-channel/legal-customer-research-infographics
2020 Legal Services 29
costs for the law firm. Here technology is enhancing, not replacing, the existing
delivery of legal services.
4.9.
Technological solutions are also being used to attract, and in some cases filter, new
customers. For example, Bott & Co‟s Car Incident Assistant app enables users to
take photographs of the accident scene using the iPhone‟s integrated camera,
record their current location using its GPS capabilities, store relevant information in
relation to their accident and submit these details via email to the firm. Alternatively,
roadtrafficrepresentation.com is a fully online service which can be used to provide
a diagnosis of likely penalties, prospects of a defence, and services such as letters
and telephone advice. The service can also be used to automatically instruct a
lawyer.
4.10. As
highlighted above, automated documents is an example of where technology is
changing the shape of existing markets. One leading provider, Epoq, produces over
300 legal document templates encompassing areas of law such as family, wills and
probate, landlord and tenant, and business and employment. Quite possibly this
technology will expand the pie, or see lawyers use their time more efficiently or
occupy different roles, rather than remove the lawyer altogether. Most products
involve a lawyer checking the document‟s accuracy or refer consumers to
professional advice where it would be better to consult an expert. Many law firms
use the same technology to assist in writing bespoke documents for their clients.
4.11. The
internet is also creating new types of legal services. An example is „ask an
expert‟ services where consumers post questions concerning a legal issue and
someone provides an answer. Different business models offer either a one-off
payment or regular subscription payments. Some provide answers for free, in the
hope that this will generate referral business on the same or a separate matter. For
example, the 10,000 experts on JustAnswer.com - which connects people to
doctors, lawyers, vets, mechanics, tech support advisors and others - claims to
have helped over eight million people in 196 countries and provide answers in an
average time of 7.5 minutes.
2020 Legal Services 30
4.12. These
various online services offer many benefits. For some consumers they may
be less intimidating, cheaper, quicker and more convenient. They can remove the
capacity for human error and enhance transparency. However, as with all
innovations there are risks for consumers too. A report by Ctrl-Shift for Consumer
Focus21 identified approximately 50 types of „digital detriments‟ ranging from new
web monopolies and online reputation management to unfair terms of data sharing
and behavioural pricing. The authors concluded that some detriments, such as the
role and exploitation of personal data in modern commerce, are still new. People
are struggling to understand their implications; they involve conflicting interests,
values and agendas which can only be resolved by society-wide debate. Others,
such as sharp practice in e-commerce, are simply old tricks reinvented for new
times and contexts, a by-product of a still immature market. Nevertheless, they still
need identifying and addressing.
4.13. Some
of these detriments have already been seen in legal services. There are
online wills where consumer choice is manipulated through defaults that select the
law firm as executor of the will. There have been concerns about system failure in
will-writing software that could mean multiple wills do not have their intended effect,
which would not be discovered until it is too late.22 There are concerns about the
accuracy of legal information websites.23 The Information Commissioner recently
warned about a spate of data protection breaches involving lawyers, who are
entrusted with holding safely highly sensitive and personal data.24 The Panel‟s work
on comparison websites found weaknesses around the selling on of personal
information and price transparency.25
21
Ctrl-Shift, Defining and defending consumer interests in the digital age, December 2011.
Legal Services Consumer Panel, Regulating will-writing, July 2011.
23
Professor Alan Paterson and Roger Smith, Face to Face Legal Services and their Alternatives: global
lessons from the digital revolution, 2014.
24
Legal Futures, Information Commissioner sounds alarm over lawyers‟ handling of personal data, 6 August
2014.
25
Legal Services Consumer Panel, Comparison websites, February 2012.
22
2020 Legal Services 31
4.14. The
Government is updating consumer rights for the digital age through the
Consumer Rights Bill. Digital detriments are not unique to legal services, of course,
but legal regulators will wish to make sure that market wide solutions designed by
government and enforced by national agencies are informed by, and cater
adequately for, the particular issues in this sector. The approved regulators need to
respond to the new challenges created by the digital market place as well, where
appropriate, for example by updating codes of conduct. This is the essence of riskbased regulation: as the risks change, so regulators must also refocus.
4.15. These
challenges also impact on the overall regulatory framework. For example, it‟s
possible that sales of legal products will outstrip sales of legal services - product
regulation is a very different kettle of fish and it won; regulators must disentangle
when a service morphs into a product and vice versa. When buying online it‟s not
always obvious where the seller is based or what legal jurisdiction they operate
under. Two recent entrants to the UK legal services market, Rocket Lawyer and
Legal Zoom, are US companies with no need to be authorised by a licensing
authority for their principal activities. In short, the growth of the digital market place
is confounding the existing boundaries of legal services regulation. This would
appear to make a review of the reserved activities and wider regulatory framework
in the Legal Services Act ever more urgent.
Big Data
4.16. Big
Data is an all-encompassing term for any collection of data sets so large and
complex that it becomes difficult to process using traditional database and software
techniques. The consumer interest is in the potential of Big Data to enhance access
and counter any risks of detriment.
2020 Legal Services 32
4.17. In
Tomorrow‟s Lawyers, Professor Richard Susskind explores some of the potential
uses for Big Data.26 For example, it would be possible to aggregate internet search
engine data to predict legal need in local communities, in the same way that Google
knows before health professionals do when there will be a flu epidemic due to a
spike in search words. Alternatively, it should be possible to predict case outcomes
by analysing databases of judicial decisions. Similarly, analysis of commercial
contracts and emails could help clients to identify and manage common risks.
4.18. In
February 2014 the Government announced £73 million of new funding to help
the public and academics unlock the potential of Big Data. It is estimated that the
Big Data market will benefit the UK economy by £216 billion and create 58,000 new
jobs before 2017.27 The National Archives has received £500,000 funding to
transform how we understand and use current legislation.28
4.19. These
developments rely on access to large public datasets and the UK
Government has identified Open Data as a key tool for unlocking growth. The BIS
mi-data initiative29 shows the potential uses in a consumer context. This is a
programme of work to give consumers access to their personal data in a portable
and electronic format, which applications can use to help them find better deals.
Energy consumption and mobile phone usage are two early examples. The LSB‟s
and Panel‟s joint efforts to open up basic core regulatory datasets for use by
comparison websites and others builds on this agenda, albeit this constitutes baby
steps compared to developments in other markets. Unblocking public data on the
performance of lawyers, therefore, should remain a priority.
4.20. Similarly,
the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (HiiL) has noted the
potential of Big Data in courts to overcome common procedural issues such as
26
Richard Susskind, Tomorrow‟s Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future, Oxford University Press, 2013.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/73-million-to-improve-access-to-data-and-drive-innovation
28
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/908.htm
29
https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/providing-better-information-and-protection-forconsumers/supporting-pages/personal-data
27
2020 Legal Services 33
delays, backlogs, costs, and unequal access to justice, but suggests existing court
IT and organisational tools and mechanisms have limited capacity to extract
valuable knowledge and insights from massive data sets.30 We have no doubt this
is true in England and Wales. They contrast this to how other sectors have
exploited the potential of Big Data. They note, for example, how insurers have
utilised Big Data platforms to overcome common problems such as insurance fraud
and improving customer retention. In healthcare, medical researchers have been
able to better understand health issues, earlier detect and find solutions to
illnesses. The police have benefited from Big Data due to its capacity to make
connections and detect patterns to prevent and solve crime.
4.21. One
major reservation about Big Data focuses on privacy issues. It is perhaps one
thing to collect data about our energy usage but quite another to collect, harvest
and potentially sell on the sorts of highly personal and sensitive information about
clients and third parties which lawyers deal with. Big Data might enable a Freemium
model of legal services which enhances greater access to justice, but would that be
at an acceptable cost? Is it right that accident victims receive marketing messages
from health insurers in the same way that information collected via supermarket
loyalty cards generates personalised advertising based on customers‟ shopping
habits? Further, law firms will potentially have access to more information about the
lives of their clients based on their data footprints. This could have implications in
proceedings where this information is relevant to the matter (e.g. divorce or fraud)
and have consequences for the lawyer-client relationship.
4.22. There
are also ethical concerns. One potential benefit of Big Data is that it makes
the outcome of legal work more predictable. Consumers might one day be able to
calculate their odds of success in winning a particular type of case and choose the
lawyer with the best track record. However, as with any situation where there is an
imbalance of information and power, those who have the least information - and
30
HiiL, Trend Report, Trialogue: Releasing the value of courts, The Future of Courts, 2013.
2020 Legal Services 34
this normally will be the consumer - could be exploited. For example, law firms
could reject cases with borderline prospects of success or deliberately under-settle
a claim.
4.23. If
these scenarios seem far-fetched, developments in the US could be a sign of the
future. One business, Juristat, claims that its statistical modelling capabilities allow
its users to visually plot their chance of success in every aspect of the patent
application process using algorithms based on a dataset of 5 million applications
and one billion calculations.31 Separately, legal scholars have developed an
algorithm that can predict, with 70% accuracy, whether the US Supreme Court will
uphold or reverse the lower-court decision before it.32
Predicting court decisions
In 2009, for a bit of fun, Josh Blackman created FantasySCOTUS - a fantasy
football-style prediction league where players make predictions about how
Supreme Court Justices will decide cases. It now has over 20,000 players
and the best hit a 75% accuracy mark.
Mr Blackman, and his colleagues, Daniel Katz and Michael Bommarito II,
have now developed an algorithm that can predict any case decided by the
Supreme Court, since 1953, using only information available at the time of
the cert grant. The model correctly identifies 69.7% of the Court‟s overall
affirm and reverse decisions and correctly forecasts 70.9% of the votes of
individual justices across 7,700 cases and more than 68,000 justice votes.
The algorithm works by generating many randomised decision trees that try
to predict the outcome of the cases, with 90 plus different variables receiving
different weights. Then, the model compares the predictions of the trees to
what actually happened, and learns what works, and what doesn‟t. This
process is repeated process many, many times, to calculate the weights that
should be afforded to different variables. In the end, the model creates a
general model to predict all cases across all courts.
Later this year the authors will be hosting a tournament where the players of
FantasySCOTUS will compete against their algorithm.
31
https://juristat.com
Daniel Katz, Michael Bommarito II, Josh Blackman, Predicting the Behavior of the Supreme Court of the
United States: A General Approach, July 2014.
32
2020 Legal Services 35
Key steps
4.24. The
LSB‟s next three-year strategy could help create a better market for consumers
in 2020 by:
Informing policy on the opportunities and limitations of digital delivery as a
solution to the access to justice challenge given the need to reconcile the
affordability benefits with the reality that some of the key groups who are
currently excluded from the justice system are not online
Ensuring the approved regulators are alive to emerging digital detriments and
develop the skills to police the digital market place effectively and support
consumers to use it safely
Assisting with efforts to unlock the potential of Big Data while exploring the
information governance and ethical issues it creates
Engaging with national digital markets/inclusion initiatives. As part of planned
ongoing thinking on modernisation of the wider regulatory framework,
ensuring reform options deal effectively with global digital markets that exist
largely outside the boundaries of the Legal Services Act
2020 Legal Services 36
5 Consumer behaviour
SUMMARY
Across the economy, bolstered by strengthened consumer rights,
transparency on provider performance and greater access to redress,
and aided by more sophisticated intermediaries which help people find
better deals, the traditional consumer-business relationship will be
turned on its head. However, the extent to which these broader
developments will impact on legal services is unclear. Our data shows
consumers are becoming slightly more empowered and the sector will
not be immune to broader societal changes. Yet, inherent features of
the market militate against empowering consumers, so regulators
should be realistic about the scope for this to enable the removal of
sectoral regulation. Crucially, unless wide differences in experience
between certain population groups are narrowed, vulnerable
consumers could remain worse off. Narrowing inequalities must be a
priority. Should the right performance data that could unleash
consumer power be unlocked, new third party intermediary services
could emerge to guide and manage choice. Although while these
providers should empower consumers they may create new problems
too. Regulators have an interest in maximising the potential of these
services by removing barriers to their development while encouraging
appropriate safeguards to protect consumers.
2020 Legal Services 37
Prospects for empowered consumers
5.1.
In March 2013, the Panel provided advice on how regulators can help consumers to
play a more active, empowered role in the legal services market.33 We suggested
consumer empowerment involves two broad elements which interact to create the
conditions for consumers to thrive. Firstly, the resources consumers have at their
disposal to make better choices. This includes a certain state of mind (confidence
and willingness to play an active role), decision-making tools such as good
information, and the skills to use these tools to make effective decisions that secure
positive outcomes. Secondly, the institutions – for example, the competition regime,
consumer protections and regulatory organisations – that support consumers to
shape markets.
5.2.
It‟s quite easy to write a vision for what an empowered legal services consumer
would look like in 2020. The ideal is consumers would identify when they have a
legal need and take the right action to resolve it. This might mean using a lawyer, or
it might not. When expert help is required, consumers would shop around and have
reliable information to compare the price and quality of competing services offered
by a diverse provider base. They would be able to research information about the
law and expect close involvement in decisions about their case, having a sound
understanding of the risks and likely outcomes. Legal services would be delivered
in the way consumers want them to be and lawyers would match the high
standards of quality and service that consumers demand of other types of
businesses. Where service does fall short, consumers would have the confidence
to complain. And irrespective of who had provided the service they would have
access to redress through the Legal Ombudsman.
33
Legal Services Consumer Panel, Empowering Consumers: Phase One Report, March 2013.
2020 Legal Services 38
5.3.
The Panel‟s advice, based on a range of survey data relating to public confidence
and the consumer journey in legal services, revealed the scale of the challenge.
This revealed problems of low trust in providers and little faith in regulators,
knowledge gaps about consumer rights and of what lawyers do, inaction in
response to some serious legal issues, lack of shopping around and minimal use of
choice tools, and some serious barriers to complaining. We highlighted the
importance of robust consumer protection regimes by pointing to research evidence
demonstrating that consumers are most likely to have a satisfactory experience of a
market if they believe that there are strong consumer protections in the market.34
Based on this evidence, we concluded that before expecting consumers to take
risks and play an active role in shaping markets, it is necessary first to ensure that
the consumer protection framework is fit for purpose.
Cause for optimism, but a need for realism
5.4.
Developments outlined elsewhere in this report give some cause for optimism
about the future. Technology is enabling consumers to break down commoditised
legal work into discrete tasks and decide which to do themselves and which to use
a lawyer for. They should more easily access information to research their legal
rights and duties in the same way people can learn now about possible health
treatments before taking a decision about what to do in consultation with their
practitioner. Liberalisation should continue to create wider choice and more
generally an enhanced competitive environment in which providers of all types have
to compete harder to win custom.
5.5.
Economy-wide data suggests consumers are becoming more assertive in their
dealings with UK businesses. For example, Ombudsman Service‟s Consumer
34
Consumer Focus, Consumer Conditions in the UK 2011: Analysis of EU Market Monitoring Survey Results,
2012.
2020 Legal Services 39
Action Monitor35 estimates there were 38 million complaints in 2013 with nearly a
third (32%) more people likely to complain about poor service now than they were a
year ago. 27% of people report frequently using social media to gain companies‟
attention compared to 9% using traditional media. Indeed, technology is a key
driver helping to rebalance the scales between consumers and businesses opening up information, aggregating it, making recommendations, enabling
consumers to self-organise and use their collective bargaining power, facilitating
direct dialogue with between customers and companies - and always instantly
accessible. But will this consumer activism translate to legal services?
5.6.
The Panel‟s Tracker Survey shows evidence of consumers becoming more
empowered over time. Since 2011 consumers are happier with the choice available
to them, shop around more and are more satisfied with value for money. They find
it less difficult to compare lawyers and are less likely to go to back to the lawyer
they used for their previous transaction. The rise of fixed fees has been a notable
feature; nearly half of transactions are priced this way, while the hourly rate is now
used in only 10% of work. In family work, which has seen a major ABS entrant, use
of fixed fees has almost quadrupled in the space of three years – from 12% to 45%.
Fixed fees are a response to consumer empowerment providing transparency and
predictability in the price of legal services.
35
Ombudsman Services, Consumer Action Monitor, January 2014.
2020 Legal Services 40
Chart – Consumers becoming more empowered
80%
70%
60%
50%
2011
40%
2012
30%
2013
20%
2014
10%
0%
Choice
Shopping
satisfaction around
Difficult to Used same
compare
lawyer
Fixed fee
Value for
money
Source: Legal Services Consumer Panel, Tracker Surveys 2011-14
5.7.
However, that optimism is tempered by conditions which limit consumer
empowerment. Some of these are core characteristics of the market. For example,
gaps in knowledge and power between consumers and lawyers will remain, even if
these are narrowed. The public will continue to use legal services rarely and often
in distressed circumstances. Our research suggests consumers are risk averse in
this market because they worry about the potentially serious consequences for their
lives and those of loved ones should mistakes happen. Natural behavioural biases
also militate against consumer empowerment, although there are techniques that
regulators can take to help overcome these (see box).36 So while it is possible to
chip away at barriers which prevent consumers playing the active role they do in
other situations, inherent features of this market work to limit consumer
empowerment.
36
Ctrl-Shift, The Changing Consumer Empowerment Landscape, A report prepared for Ofgem, April 2014.
2020 Legal Services 41
Future developments in behavioural economics
A report by Ctrl-Shift commissioned by Ofgem argues traditional approaches
to consumer empowerment, with their focus on consumer rights, consumers‟
understanding of these rights, and consumer education have had limited
effect, in part because they have been based on flawed assumptions about
the drivers of consumer behaviour and behaviour change.
Traditionally authorities have looked for ways to act as external influencers
trying to change consumers‟ behaviours. More recently, influenced by the
insights and findings of behavioural economics, attention has switched to
designing different „choice architectures‟, „nudges‟ and triggers that cause
consumers to change their behaviours in one way or another. An alternative
– „consumer empowering‟ – perspective on behaviour change is to find ways
to help consumers steer their own behaviour. The goal of „steering‟ is to help
individuals better appraise situations, and make judgements about when they
should trust, or be wary of, their gut instincts, rational judgements, or
environmental influences. For example, if it‟s pointed out to you, that you are
prone to inertia and often „can‟t be bothered‟ to do things you „should‟, the
advisor could suggest you use a service that does the checking proactively
for you. Some early research suggests that individuals who gain deeper
insights into their own behaviours are better able to change these behaviours
than purely external attempts to influence their behaviour.
Ctrl-Shift conclude that the very possibility of „behaviour change as a
consumer service‟ could transform the regulator‟s agenda and the regulatory
environment, leading to less regulation in some areas as consumers are
„empowered to empower themselves‟ and more regulation in other areas, as
these empowering services themselves need regulating.
Consumer vulnerability
5.8.
There is an important consumer vulnerability dimension to this. Survey evidence
indicates that poor living conditions, low educational levels, age and lack of internet
access are good predictors of empowerment.37 These factors affect significant
37
European Commission and JRC, The Consumer Empowerment Index: A measure of skills, awareness and
engagement of European consumers, 2011.
2020 Legal Services 42
proportions of the population. Until very recently income inequalities have been
increasing with the poorest falling further behind the average and the richest
moving further ahead. One in six people in the UK struggle to read38 and four in five
adults have a low level of numeracy.39 It is estimated that one in four people in the
UK will experience a mental health issue during the course of a year.40
5.9.
The Panel‟s Tracker Survey illustrates the differences in experience of legal
services across population groups. The C2DE group are less trusting of lawyers,
feel less protected, less likely to complain, less empowered and less satisfied with
outcomes, service and value for money. The same pattern emerges when
comparing ratings between White and BME groups, with the exception that BME
respondents were more likely than White respondents to shop around. This pattern
repeats for disabled and non-disabled users – in all measures except shopping
around, disabled users of legal services state they are less satisfied.
5.10. For
the ABC1/C2DE and White/BME categories, we are able to measure whether
the differences have widened or narrowed over time. The data shows a mixed
picture, although on most measures the gap has narrowed a little. This is important
to monitor as the competition reforms cannot be judged a success if they benefit
the better off and leave more vulnerable groups behind. While the overall direction
of travel is encouraging, there is much more to do to close these gaps.
5.11. A
recognised challenge for consumer empowerment policy is that various initiatives
serve only to widen inequalities, empowering the already empowered even more
while vulnerable consumers do not benefit. The hope is that all consumers benefit
from a trickle-down effect, but it is recognised that vulnerable consumers may need
additional support to ensure their needs are addressed. These issues need more
detailed consideration by legal regulators.
38
www.literacytrust.org.uk
www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk
40
www.mind.org.uk
39
2020 Legal Services 43
Towards greater transparency
5.12. Two
interconnected developments should boost consumer empowerment in future:
the use of transparency as a regulatory tool and the growth of the electronic market
place.
5.13. A
current trend is towards greater transparency as a tool to inform consumer
decision-making and influence the behaviour of providers. A recent paper by the
UK Regulators Network commented: “There is a powerful agenda in the UK and
internationally towards greater transparency and a recognition of the „power of
information‟. Regulators are increasingly using their information powers to publish
comparable data on the performance of regulated businesses… This is to create
pressure to improve performance, drive compliance with regulation and allow
consumers to choose between companies on the basis of service as well as
price”.41
5.14. The
current Government‟s Consumer Empowerment Strategy has promoted an
open by default policy: “to support access to... data that empowers consumers and
holds public service providers and regulated businesses to account, the
Government will... set an expectation that regulators, Government departments,
regulated businesses, and public service providers to be open as a default position.
They should continue to free the complaint and performance data (in particular on
individual businesses) they already own unless they have a good reason to do
otherwise”.42
5.15. The
Financial Conduct Authority has perhaps gone furthest and shows where legal
regulators should set their sights. It pointedly chose to make „transparency as a
41
Philip Cullum, The use of data publication to enable reputational regulation, A UK Regulators Network
Consumer Working Group discussion paper, July 2014.
42
BIS and Cabinet Office, Better Choices: Better Deals. Consumer Powering Growth, April 2011.
2020 Legal Services 44
regulatory tool‟ the subject of its very first discussion paper.43 The FCA already
publishes some performance data that it routinely collects about financial services
businesses, notably volumes of first-tier complaints. It is now considering what
additional data it could require firms to publish themselves, one suggestion being
claims data on insurance products.
5.16. The
successful deployment of „reputational regulation‟ in legal services could help
to address the shortfall in information about the quality of lawyers‟ work that inhibits
demand led competition. If, as is anticipated, familiar faces from other sectors enter
the legal services market, new legal brands develop and high visibility marketing
becomes more common place, publication of performance data could become a
really powerful regulatory tool. This happens only to a limited extent now, for
example the Legal Ombudsman names providers subject to complaints which lead
to ombudsman decisions. We see three barriers standing in the way. First, although
our joint efforts with the LSB to persuade the approved regulators to publish core
regulatory data in a machine readable format are starting to pay off, questions
remain around the range of data that will eventually emerge. A second barrier is
that the regulators collect limited data in the first place, for example about the
quality of work, that consumers would find useful. And increasing demands on firms
to supply such data could be said to run contrary to a deregulation agenda which
seeks to reduce administrative burdens. Third, is genuine policy issues to work
through on issues, such as publication of success rates, where it is possible to see
arguments for and against publication of some types of data.
Electronic market place
5.17. Comparison
websites can empower consumers by marshalling the sorts of data
described above, together with other information, such as price and direct customer
feedback, to help people shop around and find suitable providers. Currently these
43
Financial Conduct Authority, Discussion Paper DP13/1: Transparency, March 2013.
2020 Legal Services 45
„choice tools‟ are little used in legal services – our Tracker Survey suggests just 1%
of the public has used a price comparison website and 2% a customer review
website. However, our research also suggests that 10% of people go online to find
a lawyer - this suggests that public demand for comparison websites is there but
the right tools have yet to emerge. This looks like changing though. During the last
24 months the press has reported serious external investment in legal services
comparison websites, many new ventures and the entry of some well-established
websites from other sectors - vouchedfor.com and checkaprofessional.com.
5.18. A
Panel report in 2012 explored the possible reasons why comparison websites
had yet to take off and why this might change.44 The most common explanation
was the perception that comparison websites and legal services are simply not a
good fit - they are too remote for emotional purchases and legal services are not
uniform so cannot be standardised and reliably priced by providers. Other factors
suggested to us included issues around market structure: for example, it is too
fragmented, consumers require legal services too infrequently and they do not shop
around. It was also said that the profession is culturally averse to marketing. The
lack of access to professional registers was a practical barrier for comparison
websites to offer good coverage of the market.
5.19. However,
we also suggested that developments including ABS reforms,
technological advances and rising consumer power were likely to erode these
barriers away. This includes more legal services being delivered in standardised
packages which facilitate easy online comparisons, market consolidation, more
consumers shopping around, the emergence of familiar legal brands and fixed fee
services for a wide range of legal advice. All these trends are being seen.
Comparison websites are unlikely to be used in every or even most areas of law,
but may in areas, such as conveyancing, personal injury and wills, which have
among the highest consumer spend.
44
Legal Services Consumer Panel, Comparison websites, February 2012.
2020 Legal Services 46
5.20. Comparison
websites will bring risks as well as benefits. As intermediaries between
providers and consumers, comparison websites have to balance the interests of
both sides; there are risks of consumers being exploited by gaming tactics and
other practices, such as invasion of privacy, which can be hard for them to spot or
to do anything about. This can actually reduce transparency and create the risk of
consumers making poor choices. Research shows that consumers adopt a
relatively savvy approach to using these sites that recognises the advantages and
drawbacks.45 Despite this, a series of regulatory and self-regulatory interventions
have been seen in the communications, energy and financial services sectors in an
attempt to tackle consumer detriment.
5.21. There
are signs that elements in the legal profession may seek to resist customer
review websites. The legal press has reported that the Law Society is exploring the
implications of the Google „right to be forgotten‟ case to enable lawyers to expunge
negative comments left on such sites.46 The Evening Standard reported that
Mishcon de Reya sought a court order for Pimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins
to uncover the name of customers whom, he claimed, made libellous comments on
reviews website Yelp.47 However, while legal action may be attempted in extreme
cases, lawyers are unlikely to be immune from a social force which is changing the
balance of power between consumers and businesses in nearly all parts of the
economy. As Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, said in 2011: “If they [consumers] can
bring down the Egyptian regime in weeks they can bring us down in
nanoseconds”.48
5.22. Technology
is enabling other sorts of intermediaries. A paper by Consumer Futures
suggests a new breed of Next Generation Intermediaries (NGIs) may in future offer
45
Office of Fair Trading, Advertising of Prices, December 2010.
Legal Futures, Law Society targets anti-solicitor websites as it turns up heat over Wonga‟s fake firms, 27
June 2014.
47
Evening Standard, Interview: Kevin Gold, Mishcon de Reya - 'From princesses to oligarchs, we can
navigate your legal minefield, 15 August 2014.
48
http://blogs.ft.com/tech-blog/2011/06/havas-chief-backs-twitter-over-facebook-for-ads/
46
2020 Legal Services 47
smarter ways to find good deals and take the effort out of searching and
switching.49 NGIs are designed to overcome consumer inertia that limits switching.
They use algorithms to search the market for the best deal based on parameters
set by the user, actively manage the switching process and maintain an ongoing
relationship that alerts consumers when better offers emerge. Today, NGIs could
feel far removed from legal services. However, the kernel of the concept - a
personalised service using technology and datasets to connect people to the right
provider - is attractive and would help break the information asymmetries that
persist in this market. The paper suggests regulators could positively encourage
these new services given they could address the root causes of many of the issues
and problems they contend with, including by addressing supplier practices and
policies, such as around access to data, that hinder them. However, it also warns
that close regulation of intermediaries themselves is another possible role; although
NGIs could help markets work better, they could also create new market problems.
5.23. Another
type service, which is just taking off, assists the consumer in making a
complaint about poor service. This could be particularly useful in legal services
since our research tells us that dissatisfied consumers are less likely to complain to
lawyers (44% do nothing) than in other service industries (27%). For example,
resolver.co.uk, which is free to the consumer, has a five step system based on
knowledge of company complaint procedures and second-tier redress options: it
explains consumers‟ rights; uses automated technology to draft letters and emails;
records communications between the consumer and trader; creates a case file
which the consumer can refer back to; and advises on the escalation process. It is
partnering with the Accesssolicitor.com comparison website so that its algorithms
take account of a law firm‟s membership of Resolver. Similarly, youstice.com sells
subscription plans to retailers who wish to use its online complaints platform to
resolve disputes with their customers. Consumers can reach an agreement with a
49
Richard Bates, Next generation intermediaries – Examining a new approach to market engagement that
offers consumers better outcomes for less effort, Consumer Focus, January 2014.
2020 Legal Services 48
seller or, if unsuccessful, escalate the issue and request a decision from an
independent neutral - a trained professional assigned by an online dispute
resolution provider.
Key steps
5.24. The
LSB‟s next three-year strategy could help create a better market for consumers
in 2020 by:
Designing policy so that vulnerable consumers share fully in the gains of the
market reforms and quantifying and monitoring evidence of exclusion
Ensuring the collection and opening up of data by regulators about the
performance of lawyers
Facilitating the emergence of a healthy intermediaries market that could help
consumers make better choices and ensuring this works in the consumer
interest
Fostering the development of information and public education to build
consumer confidence and enable consumers to use the market effectively
2020 Legal Services 49
6 Market changes
SUMMARY
Informed observers think the legal services market will be
unrecognisable by 2020 as the pace of change accelerates following
the ABS reforms. Current ABS developments – including consolidation,
specialisation, emerging brands, investment in marketing, technology
and new delivery methods, hold clues to the future. The law will
increasingly become a more business-like environment. This should
deliver benefits to consumers and widen access, but it may also bring
more sophisticated marketing and commercial practices seen in other
markets that have caused consumer detriment. Regulators must
acquire new skills and tools to deal with these new risks. Unregulated
businesses will continue to grow as a major component of the market.
It will be important to maintain and enhance consumer protection, and
extend access to redress, so the public have confidence to engage in
the market and can use it safely. This requires regulators to work
closely with local and national enforcement partners who act as
guardians of general consumer law. It also makes a review of the
reserved activities and wider regulatory framework ever more urgent,
but in the interim there will be a need to raise standards in unregulated
markets. The loosening and stretching of regulatory boundaries as a
result of present rule changes will continue to blur differences between
branches of the legal profession. This process should benefit
consumers and the LSB has a role to remove any artificial barriers that
prevent the market responding to consumer demand. It will also need
to ensure that competition between professional groups for the same
work happens on fair terms.
2020 Legal Services 50
Changing shape of the market
6.1.
It would be foolish for us to pretend to know what the structure of the legal services
market in 2020 will be. When the first ABS licences were issued in October 2012,
the Panel was not among those expecting the equivalent of the Big Bang in
financial services; instead we saw the potential for radical change over a longerterm horizon. Mindful of the famous Bill Gates quote that people tend to
overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the
change that will occur in the next ten, informed observers think the pace of change
in legal services will accelerate in the period up to 2020 and beyond.
“If the changes that have occurred in the legal market in England and Wales in the
past two years are anything to go by, then by 2020 it will be unrecognisable.”
(Foreword by George Bull, Baker Tilly report, Legal Innovation 2013, June 2013).
6.2.
Developments since the introduction of ABS to date might offer clues about the
future. Incumbents have adapted in part by making themselves bigger. This has
included obtaining injections of capital, mergers and acquisitions, and entering into
marketing collectives or forming networks of law firms operating under a common
brand. Carrying out white labelled work for large retail brands has been another
popular move. As well as consolidation, specialisation seems another response –
over a quarter of firms report conducting at least 90% of their work in a single
category of work.50
6.3.
It is often said that most of the innovation has come from new entrants. Established
retail brands have entered the market. There has been a large amount of external
investment and aggressive buying up of legal practices. A keen interest in our
market from overseas has been a key feature. SRA data suggests ABS have made
significant inroads in certain areas, for example they account for a third of turnover
50
Pascoe Pleasence, Nigel J. Balmer and Richard Moorhead, A Time of Change: Solicitors‟ Firms in England
and Wales. A report prepared for the Law Society, Legal Services Board and Ministry of Justice, July 2012.
2020 Legal Services 51
in the personal injury market.51 Contrary to fears about cherry picking work, ABSs
have captured a significant percentage of turnover in mental health and social
welfare.52 This bodes well for securing access to justice in areas of legal work often
considered unprofitable.
6.4.
If there has been one disappointment, it is perhaps in the low number of MDPs –
the poster child of the reforms – although surely these will take off. Some novel
combinations of legal and non-legal expertise have emerged, though, such as
estate agents and conveyancing practices, and firms which have integrated public
relations with defamation work. In particular, big accountancy firms are expected to
make an impact. The SME market, where the LSB‟s research53 suggests there is
high latent demand, may be a particularly fruitful area for accountancy practices
more widely given their existing relationships with this customer group. In addition,
DIY online services and fixed-fee subscription services have recently emerged to
cater for this previously underserved market.
Implications for consumers
6.5.
The ABSs report the most common areas of investment being technology,
marketing and changes to the way legal services are delivered.54 This is where
changes to business structures and financing start to deliver visible changes on the
ground. Familiar high-street names are marketing legal services, slick advertising is
appearing in our living rooms and low-cost automated documents are offering
alternatives to bespoke services. In addition, fixed fees, longer opening hours and a
commitment to removing jargon are all developments making legal services more
accessible.
51
Legal Services Board, Evaluation: Changes in competition in different legal markets, October 2013.
Ibid.
53
Professor Pascoe Pleasence and Dr Nigel J. Balmer, In Need of Advice? Findings of a Small Business
Legal Needs Benchmarking Survey. A report prepared for the Legal Services Board, April 2013.
54
Solicitors Regulation Authority, Research on alternative business structures (ABSs): Findings from surveys
with ABSs and applicants that withdrew from the licensing process, May 2014.
52
2020 Legal Services 52
6.6.
However, we shouldn‟t convince ourselves that every structural change in the
market will be good news for consumers. The Panel‟s Tracker Survey indicates that
service satisfaction is highest with the smallest law firms and falls away as the
entity gets larger. The Legal Ombudsman has reported that traditional high street
law firms are evolving into or being displaced by conveyancing factories. While a
high-volume, commoditised and automated delivery set up enables these
companies to offer services for as little as £90, there have been complaints about
the poor quality of work, shoddy service and supposedly fixed fee deals where the
final bill ends up being higher. The Chief Ombudsman expressed a worry that these
services may be too geared towards simple transactions. Where there are
complexities, such as when more detailed searches are needed, the rigid business
models used by factory firms may come unstuck.55 Of course, consumers make
trade-offs between price and quality, but regulation must at the very least ensure
that standards stay above an adequate minimum floor.
6.7.
The competition reforms, in particular new entrants and injection of external
investment, also mean that the law is becoming a more business-like environment.
The tighter disciplines and greater efficiencies this brings is good news for
consumers. However, it will also bring more sophisticated marketing and
commercial practices seen in other markets that have caused consumer detriment.
One-stop shop services offer the benefits of convenience, but other markets have
seen bundled packages and unfair terms which are difficult for consumers to
disentangle. Subscription packages are familiar in other markets and offer certainty
and convenience, but problems occur if they come with long tie-ins and exit
penalties. Technology enables a more personalised service delivery, but the
personal data which consumers provide to enable this is itself a valuable
commodity that is sold on, with problems elsewhere around consent and
information security. Heavy marketing of services improves awareness and choice,
55
Legal Ombudsman, Losing the plot: Residential conveyancing complaints and their causes, undated.
2020 Legal Services 53
but creates scope for misleading advertising practices such as attractive headline
prices that mask hidden costs later on. This sort of market becomes more
appealing to intermediaries, such as comparison websites, which aid consumer
choice, but some have been found to manipulate choice and work too far in the
interests of their subscribers.
6.8.
In many ways, this is the price of progress – a more commercial environment
creates new benefits for consumers, but new risks also. Consumers can expect to
gain in net terms so the answer is not to turn back the clock, which would be
impossible. However, all this emphasises the importance of maintaining and
enhancing a strong safety net to protect consumers. The approved regulators, who
are on a journey from self-regulated professional bodies to independent market
regulators, must acquire new skills and tools to deal with these new risks. They will
also need to engage with specialist enforcement bodies who are guardians of
general consumer law, such as the Advertising Standards Authority, the Information
Commissioner and trading standards. These bodies need to be aware of issues
that are particular to our market so they can target their efforts effectively. However,
as we discussed in the previous section, their limited resources mean legal
regulators cannot rely on them alone to tackle problems in this sector.
Chart – Service satisfaction by size of firm
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
One man band A small local An online only A national
A large
firm
organisation brand with a corporate firm
local office
Source: Legal Services Consumer Panel, Tracker Survey 2014
2020 Legal Services 54
Blurring of professional boundaries
6.9.
In 2020 the loosening and stretching of regulatory boundaries occurring as a result
of rule changes happening at present will continue to blur differences between
branches of the legal profession. This is most visible at the Bar, where the
restrictions on direct access to barristers, conducting litigation and handling client
money are being lifted. But it can be seen elsewhere too. The Council for Licensed
Conveyancers is expanding the range of legal activities that it regulates and
chartered legal executives will shortly have the opportunity to form independent
businesses. ICAEW is expected soon to seek to expand its horizons beyond the
narrow probate activities which it currently has rights to authorise. Added to this is
entry by non-law firms carrying out legal work as ABS entities, and initiatives to
professionalise the paralegal workforce.
6.10. Consumers
stand to benefit from the more diverse market place that should result
from these changes. Most obviously there will be wider choice as consumers can
pick between different types of professional for the same work. It should increase
scope for seamless service provision as it no longer becomes necessary to use
combinations of legal and other professionals to undertake different elements of
what, in the eyes of the consumer, is a single matter. By streamlining the delivery of
legal services and cutting out unnecessary links in the chain, we can also expect
the cost of legal services to reduce. Also, as different types of lawyer essentially do
the same thing, the visibility of titles can be expected to reduce and be replaced by
a greater focus on the activity. This process of convergence is thus a good thing for
consumers and it is in their interests for the LSB to remove any artificial barriers
that prevent the market responding to consumer demand.
6.11. One
consequence of different types of lawyers working in the same arenas is more
intense competition for work. Although each type of lawyer may have similar access
2020 Legal Services 55
to the same potential pool of consumers, differences in regulatory regimes may
inhibit competition from operating fairly. The issues identified in the Jeffrey Review
on Independent Criminal Advocacy may foreshadow the sorts of situations that
could arise more often in future.56 The Legal Aid Agency awards contracts to a
single entity which is expected to provide an end-to-end service and sub-contract
elements of the work as necessary. However, since it is unable to award contracts
to self-employed barristers because they are not entities, this was seen to give an
unfair advantage to solicitors who have first contact with potential clients through
the duty solicitor scheme operating in police stations and further a strong incentive
to keep the advocacy element of this work in house rather than refer to barristers as
they traditionally have done. The Cab Rank Rule, which binds barristers but is not
replicated in the SRA Handbook, is another example where controversy has arisen.
Consumers benefit the most when competition operates fairly so we do not view
these as battles for the profession alone to resolve among themselves.
6.12. In
addition to competition, other issues will need to be tackled so the market can
respond freely to consumer demand while maintaining standards at the right level.
One is avoiding regulatory arbitrage - the risk of a downward spiral if lawyers
choose the regulator operating the most lax regulatory regime. Ensuring consistent
implementation of the Legal Education and Training Review recommendations
aimed at producing a more mobile and flexible workforce is another important
element. Finally, echoing our submission to the Simplification Review, as
differences between lawyers fall away, it becomes harder to justify maintaining
multiple different rulebooks, disciplinary regimes, financial protection arrangements,
and, indeed, regulators. The duplication of effort and cost this entails are
unnecessary costs which consumers ultimately foot the bill for.57
56
Sir Bill Jeffrey, Independent criminal advocacy in England and Wales. Review for the Ministry of Justice,
May 2014.
57
Legal Services Consumer Panel, Breaking the maze: Simplifying legal services regulation, September
2013.
2020 Legal Services 56
6.13. In
short, by 2020 the current system of multiple regulators will seem increasingly
burdensome, but there is scope for the LSB to improve competition through
harmonising rules and removing duplicative processes. It will need to resolve the
apparent contradiction in growing the number and reach of regulators with the
desire to simplify and harmonise the overall regulatory system. Further, although
regulatory structures will largely be invisible to most consumers, cracks appear
when consumers seek to use the system to remedy problems they experience. So
there is a need in the shorter term to make the complex regulatory landscape
easier to navigate for consumers.
Unregulated markets
6.14. The
LSB estimates that unregulated businesses already account for some 20-30%
of turnover in the UK legal services sector.58 The Institute of Economic Research
has projected growth in the „associate legal professionals‟ category of 19.6%
between 2010 and 2020, which translates to an extra 7,000 jobs (this covers
regulated and the unregulated workforce).59 The unregulated sector has not been
comprehensively mapped, but includes HR consultants, will-writers and estate
administrators, software companies selling online legal services and various
providers of general legal advice. Claims managers and immigration advisers could
also be described as paralegals, although these providers are subject to alternative
regulatory regimes.
6.15. The
LSB‟s blueprint document60 suggests the core protections for legal services
consumers should lie in general consumer law and by enhanced access to redress,
rather than via a panoply of sector specific rules. It states this would allow the
removal of much sector-specific regulation. By 2020 new legislation will have
58
Legal Services Board, Regulatory Information Review, September 2011
Data provided by IER for Legal Education and Training Review, 2013.
60
Legal Services Board, A blueprint for reforming legal services regulation, September 2013.
59
2020 Legal Services 57
strengthened the consumer‟s hand. The Consumer Rights Bill, which is currently
going through Parliament, is designed to clarify and simplify consumer rights. The
Bill aims to make consumers better informed and better protected when they‟re
buying and update the law for the digital market place. The Consumer Protection
(Amendment) Regulations will allow consumers to seek redress for misleading and
aggressive unfair commercial practices from traders by bringing their own private
actions in the civil courts. The ADR Directive and ODR Regulations have the
potential to extend access to ombudsmen and similar mechanisms.
6.16. However,
other factors may limit the effectiveness of these measures. For example,
the new private rights of action do not extend to all breaches of consumer
protection law. Further, one factor why consumers are less likely to complain to
lawyers than other service industries is being intimidated by the prospect of „taking
lawyers on at their own game‟.61 The idea of taking a lawyer to court would seem
even more daunting. Therefore, there will continue to be a reliance on public
enforcement, yet trading standards services have been cut by 40% since 2010 and
legal services is not a national enforcement priority, nor is it likely to become one.
Another limitation is that the Government has chosen to implement the ADR
Directive so that it is voluntary for traders to participate (see box). Unregulated
businesses will need to be convinced that it makes commercial good sense for
them to voluntarily subscribe to one of the recognised ADR bodies. Swift progress
on making available a viable voluntary jurisdiction under the Legal Ombudsman
would aid this.
6.17. We
suggest the significant and growing scale of unregulated delivery of legal
services means this cannot be viewed as a peripheral issue, especially given the
arbitrary nature of the reserved activities. The long-term answer is to review which
activities should be reserved, but the outcome of the Simplification Review means
61
YouGov, Consumer experiences of complaint handling in the legal services market. Report prepared for the
Legal Ombudsman and Legal Services Consumer Panel, August 2012.
2020 Legal Services 58
this work is not imminent. While the case for a review should continue to be
pushed, facing the reality that the regulatory net is unlikely to be much expanded
before 2020, there is a need to safeguard standards in the unregulated areas. In
this context, the CILEx enquiry on whether paralegals can meet the market needs
of the future is timely. The enquiry will address how the paralegal workforce can
best serve the future needs of consumers and the ethical and consumer issues
which arise from the increased use of paralegals. The joint initiative by the Institute
of Paralegals and National Association of Licensed Paralegals to create a
Professional Paralegal Register is another notable development.
6.18. Self-regulation
has a tarnished track record in this sector; failures among the
professional bodies were a prompt for the Legal Services Act. Certainly we do not
advocate it as a long-term solution to a review of the reserved activities, but it would
be irresponsible to be fatalistic about this and sit back and do nothing while
consumers suffer loss at the hands of unregulated businesses with no means of
seeking redress. There is a spectrum of options that could improve market
outcomes including promoting better consumer information, standards-setting,
developing codes of practice and co-regulation solutions. There are some limits on
the extent to which the LSB can look at areas outside the regulated market.
However, Section 163 of the Legal Services Act foresees a role for the LSB to give
advice on codes of practice or other voluntary arrangements. The ADR Directive,
due to come into force in 2015, will create other opportunities to promote access to
redress (see box). We submit that these solutions are unlikely to emerge by
themselves; the LSB potentially has a valuable role to encourage and facilitate
efforts led by industry to raise standards in the unregulated market.
2020 Legal Services 59
The ADR Directive
The Directive will require ADR to be available for any dispute regarding
contractual obligations that a consumer has with a legal services business.
The Government considers that introducing a residual ADR scheme which
would operate alongside existing schemes and deal with any dispute not
currently covered would be the simplest way of fulfilling this objective. Legal
services businesses could opt to subscribe to the residual scheme or to any
voluntary scheme which the Legal Ombudsman elects to create.
However, the Directive makes it optional for traders to participate in ADR,
unless it is already required by sectoral legislation or mandated by member
states. The UK has decided to make participation voluntary, but BIS is
exploring incentives to encourage participation. The Directive contains one
powerful incentive as it will be compulsory for traders to alert consumers to
the availability of ADR whether or not they subscribe to a scheme.
Key steps
6.19. The
LSB‟s next three-year strategy could help create a better market for consumers
in 2020 by:
Unblocking artificial obstacles to convergence among professional groups,
while ensuring competition between those groups for the same work
happens on fair terms
Ensuring the approved regulators are equipped to respond effectively to the
new types of consumer detriment that result from law becoming a more
business-like environment
Actively encouraging and facilitating initiatives to raise standards and
extend access to redress in unregulated markets
Continuing to press for modernisation of the wider regulatory framework in
the longer term. Meanwhile, where possible, move towards harmonising
arrangements, such as rulebooks, disciplinary regimes and financial
protection schemes, within the existing legislative structures
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7 What should guide the
regulatory response
7.1.
To address the second element of the LSB‟s commission, in this final section, we have
briefly identified five overarching themes that we consider should guide the regulators in
responding to the future developments described in previous sections.
Act to ensure the reforms benefit everyone
7.2.
Firstly, in overall terms, there would seem good grounds for being optimistic about the
future. Market liberalisation, technology and other forces should produce innovative and
cheaper services that can benefit all consumers and widen access to groups currently
excluded from the market. Consumers should have better access to knowledge and
tools to diagnose their legal needs and take greater control over how these are
resolved, with access to a more diverse provider base and DIY options. We can expect
consumers to be more demanding, by using intermediaries to shop around, make
informed comparisons and complain. However, unavoidably, legal services will remain
an inherently difficult market in which to exercise consumer power and much will
depend on unlocking the raw data that underpins informed choice, encouraging
intermediaries to make it intelligible to a range of consumers, and having a clear
strategy for empowering consumers more generally, for example through public
education. There is also a risk that vulnerable consumers will be left behind and
inequalities will widen, for example due to an overreliance on technology or people
having no option but to handle their legal matter alone. In order to create fair markets
that serve all, it will not be sufficient for regulators to sit back and let market forces
unfold; instead they should tackle consumer vulnerability proactively, by thinking about
this strategically, quantifying and monitoring exclusion, and embedding it throughout
their work.
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Adapt to the changing pattern of risks
7.3.
A second thread running through our analysis is the changing pattern of risk. It is not
that the market will become more or less risky overall, but the nature of the risks is likely
to be different. Unbundled service provision will widen access and empower consumers,
but also place more responsibility into their hands and create new challenges for
lawyers. Technology may transform the delivery of legal services in a range of beneficial
ways, but a series of digital detriments have to be contended with, such as data
protection breaches. Third party intermediary services should help to connect
consumers to suitable providers, but in other markets they have manipulated consumer
choice and raised privacy issues. Greater competition and new entrants promise to
widen choice and innovation in service delivery, but as the law becomes a more
business-like environment, so also we can expect to see problems related to the
sophisticated marketing and commercial practices seen in other markets. Regulators
will also need to move with the times, updating their tools and regulatory criteria,
acquiring new skills and forging strong partnerships with local and national agencies
responsible for enforcing general consumer law.
Rethink consumer protection
7.4.
Our third overarching theme follows from the first two. Regulation shouldn‟t be seen a
last resort, but as a vital safety net which protects the vulnerable, empowers consumers
and enables growth. Research analysis suggests that consumer confidence that the
rules protect them is the single most important factor that explains those markets that
work for consumers and those that do not. An ideological approach to strip away
regulation risks undermining public confidence and efforts to empower consumers.
Sometimes, as with convergence in the profession, there will be a need to remove
regulation which inhibits competition. In other situations consumer protection will need
to be strengthened, with options including extending the reach of regulation, expanding
access to redress, updating regulatory criteria and tools, and exploring alternatives to
traditional regulation. Often these decisions will involve a difficult balancing act between
access to justice and consumer protection. Overall, though, rather than thinking about
2020 Legal Services 62
having more or less regulation in net terms, the focus should be on ensuring regulation
is targeted in the right place and does the job it is designed for. Rethinking consumer
protection also means a starting point which looks at the whole legal services
ecosystem rather than the narrow boundaries of legal services regulation.
Work in different ways
7.5.
Fourth, there are opportunities for the LSB to work in different ways in order to bring
about the better future for consumers in 2020 that the organisation and its partners will
wish to strive for. Some developments, such as the steady rise in litigants in person and
online dispute resolution, create novel and difficult policy issues where high quality
thought leadership on the regulatory implications would contribute real value. In other
areas, as with big data and intermediary markets, the LSB could play a direct role in
facilitating innovation. Further, there is scope for the LSB to encourage and facilitate
efforts to raise standards and extend access to redress in unregulated markets. Equally,
our analysis should inform the development of some existing activities. For example, its
regulatory standards work, which periodically assesses the performance of the
approved regulators, needs to assess whether the regulators are acquiring the new
knowledge and skill sets we describe.
Maintain pressure for legislative reform
7.6.
Finally, developments in the period to 2020 will put the overall regulatory framework
under even greater strain than it is today and the LSB should continue to press for major
legislative reform. Increasingly, especially given a burgeoning digital market place, legal
services will be delivered by businesses operating outside of the Legal Services Act
boundaries, leaving consumers without the core protections they need. Businesses
working horizontally by offering combinations of legal and other services in one-stop
shops will rub up against individual sectoral regulatory and redress systems organised
in artificial vertical silos. Frontline regulators will need access to an updated armoury of
tools to deliver effective regulation. The continued blurring of professional boundaries
will reduce even further the narrow differences between groups of lawyers, with
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inconsistent regulatory regimes inhibiting competition and limiting workforce mobility.
The system would still be based on titles that have lost their old meaning, when it would
be better to build regulation around the activity. And when lawyers are essentially doing
the same work and running businesses in partnership together, the duplication of cost
and effort required to maintain multiple rulebooks, disciplinary regimes and so on,
becomes even harder to justify.
7.7.
This is not the fault of the current legislation, which was designed to liberalise the
market. But with a new era being ushered in, so too the framework will need to be
modernised. While legislative reform is not feasible within the lifetime of the LSB‟s next
three-year strategy, it should be possible to set down quite precisely the change that is
needed, seek to build consensus around this vision and secure political commitment on
implementation.
2020 Legal Services 64
Annex 1
The following people and organisations attended the Panel‟s stakeholder event,
chaired by Joshua Rozenberg, to inform this exercise. We are grateful to the Law
Society for presenting their scenarios work at this event to help us build on existing
work.
Adam Sampson, Legal Ombudsman
Caroline Wallace, Legal Services Board
Crispin Passmore, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Duncan Rudkin, General Pharmaceutical Council
Elisabeth Davies, Legal Services Consumer Panel
Kate Wellington, Which?
Louise Restell, Consultant
Mark Stobbs, Law Society
Mary McAnally, National Consumer Federation
Matthew Smerdon, Legal Education Foundation
Peter Farr, Civil Justice Council and Judicial Office
Peter James, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
Philip Marsden, Legal Services Consumer Panel
Professor Richard Moorhead, UCL
Sandra Barton, ILEX Professional Standards
Sheila Kumar, Council for Licensed Conveyancers
Stephen Crowne, Bar Council
Steve Brooker, Legal Services Consumer Panel
Steve Hynes, Low Commission and Legal Action Group
Sue Lewis, Financial Services Consumer Panel
Vanessa Davies, Bar Standards Board
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The Legal Services Consumer Panel was
established under the Legal Services Act 2007
to provide independent advice to the Legal
Services Board about the interests of
consumers of legal services in England and
Wales. We investigate issues that affect
consumers and use this information to
influence decisions about the regulation of
legal services.
Consumer Panel Members
Elisabeth Davies (Chair)
Andy Foster
Cathy Gallagher
Dr Michelle Goddard
Frances Harrison
Dr Philip Marsden
Marlene Winfield OBE
Catherine Wolthuizen
Secretariat
Steve Brooker
Harriet Gamper